Man arrested after allegedly setting sights on relative

Prosecutors filed criminal endangerment charges against a 36-year-old man they say was found with multiple firearms after he threatened to harm his brother and another individual earlier this month.

Deputies with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office arrested Joseph Thomas Oliver on June 10. He is being held in the county jail on a $100,000 bond.

After learning about the threats, deputies swarmed the intersection of Smith Lake Road and Windsong Court about 9:52 p.m. looking for Oliver. There, they found Oliver and a woman who lived with Oliver’s brother. She told authorities she had gone out looking for Oliver after receiving information he might be in the neighborhood.

When she found Oliver, he allegedly said he had swung by their home several times in recent days and put the two in the “cross hairs of his gun.”

According to court documents, Oliver boasted that he could have killed them that morning. As evidence, he allegedly described the chores he watched them both perform.

Deputies found a semi-automatic rifle, accompanied by several magazines, and a handgun in Oliver’s vehicle during his arrest, court documents said.

Oliver is expected to be arraigned in Flathead County District Court on June 30. If convicted of criminal endangerment, he faces up to a decade in state prison and a $50,000 fine.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.